The deadline to file appeals to the State Wildfire Risk Map is March 10, 2025. Public sentiment has become clear in opposition to these maps. Will the Oregon legislature pursue Senate Bill 79?

State Representative Vikki Breese Iverson (R-Prineville) says, “My district was deeply affected by last year’s wildfire. We need to not only repeal the wildfire maps, but we also need to undo the damage caused by these maps.” She has identified four key policy changes that is needed to begin repairing the damage:

• Explore every opportunity to incentivize private insurance companies to offer plans to rural Oregonians again;
• Offer tax relief to Oregonians who lost their homes in major wildfires and pass HB 3139;
• Invoke state coordination to improve federal forest planning; and
• Return management control of our millions of acres of federal forest land to state and local governments (LC 4525).

What caused all this controversy? In 2021, SB 762 passed creating an updated wildfire program, which has opened a backdoor effort to prevent people from living in rural areas. This bill included one extremely controversial requirement – the establishment of a statewide wildfire risk map used to regulate people’s properties. Samantha Bayer exposes how legislative bills SB 79, SB 78, SB 77 and SB 73 are attacks on rural Oregon’s right to exist. Bayer also points out the legislators' hostility supporting the idea that people should not be allowed to live in areas mapped as high hazard on the state map is a threat against rural Oregonians. Representative Paul Evens (D-Monmouth) put his hostility in writing bulling the Greater Idaho Movement, which will further the demise of rural Oregon. He writes: “For the counties asking for assistance in capital construction funding for repair, rehabilitation, or replacement of county courthouses and justice facilities, I have suggested that we must prioritize funding for counties that intend to remain a part of Oregon for the duration.”

During testimony in 2021, Robert Powell, an avid researcher, exposed the connection of mapping to the Rockefeller Foundation, which established an environment-related program in 1969. Shortly after, the United State established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. In 1973, the Foundation gave $500,000 to Oregon State University to create a report, “Man and his activities as they relate to environmental quality,” based on the 1971 UN General Assembly Resolution 2581. The resolution came from the Stockholm Declaration, “Rights and obligations of citizens and governments with regard to the preservation and improvement of the human environment.”

Out of the OSU report came legislation SB 100, passed in 1973, which created an institutional structure for statewide planning. It required every Oregon city and county to prepare a comprehensive plan in accordance with a set of general state goals while preserving the principle of local responsibility for land-use decisions. It included setting up an NGO, 1000 Friends of Oregon, to deal with opposition that Oregonians were being deceived. Deceived they were. Under cover came the “Wildlands Project”, and when the UN Biodiversity treaty failed at the Rio Accord, they changed the name to “Commission on Sustainable Development” that is openly visible in SB 79.

Along came SB 762 and the new fire map that enhanced the purpose of the Rockefeller’s donation to OSU, to further the UN’s goal removing 30% of humans from the world. Biden followed with his 30 x 30 Executive Order 14008 dated January 27, 2021 and revoked by Executive Order 14148 and 14154, January 20, 2025, by President Trump. However, the revocation has not stopped the Democrat leadership in Oregon from pursuing SB 79 and like bills.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Oregonians need to recognize that the surface explanation for mapping has nothing to do with convenience, insurance or safety. Up until the time President Trump took office, there has been many intentional attempts to remove citizens from their land with fires and floods – Maui, North Carolina, Tennessee, Los Angeles, and they will continue until forced to stop. We all remember the Bundy standoff to protect ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond’s right to graze their cattle on public lands and protect their property from an out of control fire. Oregon’s loose enforcement has allowed backburns to get out of control blaming climate change.

When climate warming became unprovable, the name was replaced with climate change. In 2022, the Rockefeller Foundation announced that it would make the fight against climate change central to all of its work. At the same time, Governor Kate Brown took significant executive action to address the climate crisis, and Oregon adopted a revised Climate Protection Program in November 2024.

Oregon property owners will need to diligently follow this legislature and respond accordingly, by following Oregon Citizens Lobby Alerts.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2025-03-09 17:07:38

Last Update: 2025-03-09 23:55:09